


Red Brick City

by ninavrye



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Character Death, F/M, Gen, Going back to where it all started, Losing, Love, Love loss, Memories, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Original Universe, Pain, Remembrance, Return, Romance, Short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-12
Updated: 2013-04-12
Packaged: 2017-12-08 07:45:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/758856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ninavrye/pseuds/ninavrye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There was a strange feeling of disorientation when she looked at the sceneries of the city out of her taxi window.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Red Brick City

A strange nauseating feeling was curling and uncurling inside her chest, as she looked at the city out of her taxi window. Was it the feeling of disorientation? She found the scenery both familiar and completely alien. 

It was like, one day you come across a book on your bookshelf, which you remember you used to adore as a child, but when you finally sit down anticipating to be swept away by the imaginary world, you find yourself mildly disappointed. Because even though the book is the same and the words are the same, you can’t read it in the same way as you could when you were a child. 

Nothing changed except you.

She _had_ changed; there was no denying it. But she now could feel it more acutely, as she looked at her home town with stranger’s eyes. She was long past the fretting stage – that had happened during the flight – and now she was fighting a guilty feeling of disappointment mixed with nostalgia.

When the taxi finally reached her destination, she stepped out onto the pavement with barely a hint of quick heartbeat. She payed the taxi driver and then busied herself with smoothing the hem of her knee-length coat, briefly delaying the moment. Finally she turned and found herself face to face with the Red Brick City.

The magic had been lost.

A small square, neither prettier nor cleaner than any other square she had seen. People walking by paid no heed to her, while once upon a time anybody’s very appearance in the near proximity of the City would have been considered an event. The walls of the fortress had lost their glimmer and looked simply dull.

That was when she found her heart speeding up again.

She willed her legs to move. She walked stiffly, every second expecting someone to shout and stop her. But nobody blinked an eye as she approached the place that had been considered a forbidden territory for decades.

There was no security post to prevent anyone from entering. The street just blended in with the courtyard, devoid of any visible border. There used to be a white line painted on the cobblestones. Now it was gone. But she could vividly remember that border and briefly hesitated before crossing it. As she stepped over it, suddenly she was _inside_ while everybody else was _outside_.

Dark cobblestone pavement was dirty and littered with rubbish. A street lamp flickered above her head. Her steps seemed to echo between the walls. She was walking in the dead city.

She looked at the walls, not believing her eyes. Once bright red and shimmering - now they were covered with graffiti and obscene words. She touched the rough surface with her glove-covered fingers. What once would have been considered a sacrilege was now in plain view and being ignored by everybody.

Overwhelmed, she leaned to the wall closing her eyes for a moment. It had been years but those memories were still fresh in her mind. 

They had been young and foolish and too much in love with each other and with the strange fortress that towered above the rest of the Red Brick City. It had been dangerous and thus so beautiful and alluring. They used to sneak inside and kiss against the cold stonewalls and make love on the cobblestone pavement.

They had laughed at the threats and chased with the bullets. They had thought themselves to be invincible and sung to the wailing sirens. But then there had been an air-attack warning and the bombs had been coming down like a milliard of black insects, growing bigger with every second. Barking dogs and screams and the red bricks covered with the colour of true Revolution.

She was broken.

He was dead.

But the City remained.


End file.
